


The Molecular Separator

by cafe80s



Category: Phineas and Ferb
Genre: F/M, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-29
Updated: 2018-03-29
Packaged: 2019-04-13 14:31:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14114382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cafe80s/pseuds/cafe80s
Summary: What might have happened if the molecular separator had hit someone else? A collection of different circumstances of an accidental beam from the invention. Inspired by the episode “Split Personality”.





	1. Parallel Phineas

“We’ve just finished with our molecular separator!” said Phineas. “It’s our cool new machine that breaks things down into their component parts!”

Ferb took the peanut butter-covered chocolate bar and zapped it with the machine. 

“Witchcraft!” Buford exclaimed. 

“C’mon, lets see what else we can separate,” Phineas said to Ferb as Buford and Baljeet left the backyard. 

Ferb’s shoulder accidentally clipped the side of the separator, sending a beam of blue light towards Phineas.

A wondrous sound of splitting occurred, and before Ferb’s eyes stood two versions of his brother. One with narrowed eyebrows and dark clothes, and the other smiling ear to ear in his normal striped shirt and shorts.

_Good lord,_ thought Ferb. _What have I done?_

_______________

 

“Hey guys! Whatcha-“ 

Isabella stopped in her catchphrase as she saw Ferb standing next to two Phineas’s. 

“Ferb! What happened?”

“Well, we built a molecular separator and… well, I accidentally hit him.”

“Wow, two Phineas’s! This is so cool…”

Ferb shook his head, and looked over at the darker Phineas who turned to walk inside. It was strange, the boy who normally outtalked his brother wasn’t saying a thing. The other, more positive Phineas, however, went straight over to Isabella. 

“Oh, hi Isabella! We made a molecular separator, and now I feel so good to have gotten rid of myself. Well… myself that isn’t nice to be around, y’know? Anyways, I’m really glad you came over. It’s really nice that you come over every day to help us with our inventions…”

Isabella backed away slowly, towards Ferb. 

“Does he ever… shut up?”

“Ah, I can see how he got spilt into two. This is his peppy, confident, chatty, the-one-you-see-most-of-the-time Phineas, and the other one is the side of him I don’t think you’ve ever seen.”

“Huh,” Isabella replied. 

“I’ll go upstairs to the other Phineas, you stay here and keep this one company.”

“Sure!” said Isabella, and stood next to Phineas, listening to the sound of his voice as he continued to talk about his love of summer.

________________

The door of the boy’s bedroom creaked as Ferb slowly opened it. 

“You ok?” he asked as he sat across from Phineas. 

“No,” he replied. “How can that idiot be so happy all the time? Where does he find the energy?”

“Well, I think it’s fair to say you’ve kept yourself well hidden. Isabella was surprised to see you like this.”

“What would she have expected? There’s really no other sides of me. Just extroverted me and… well, this me. But I hate the other one. Honestly, how is he so… like that? How can he just keep blathering on? How is he doing that? How does he constantly see the positive side of life?”

“Everybody has different sides, Phin. And the fact yours are these ones is just who you are.”

____________________

“It’s so… odd,” said the Phineas in the backyard with Isabella. “That Phineas is so… depressed? How can he not see the great things in life like inventing, and enjoying summer?”

“Oh Phineas, he’s just thinking about a different side of life. Sure, it’s a less exciting side of life but that was a part of you before!”

“I guess…” Phineas said. “I just can’t stand negativity! I want to get that other Phineas to be positive.”

He stood up and started to walk inside the house, but was stopped by Isabella yanking on his arm.

“Phineas, you can’t! That’s part of who you are! You can’t change it.”

Phineas sighed. “I guess you’re right.”

___________________

Ferb met Isabella on the staircase as they passed each other. 

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“I wanted to see the other Phineas.”

“Uh, alright. We just had a really deep chat, and he’s a bit vulnerable now. Be careful.”

“Thanks, Ferb.”

Isabella quietly walked up the rest of the stairs and into the boys’ room. 

“Hey, Phin. Whatcha doing?”

“Oh, hey Isabella.”

“What’s up?”

Phineas sighed as she sat down next to him.

“Nothing, it’s just that the other me is just so… happy. How can he not worry about things all the time? How is he so carefree? What about the meaning of life?”

Isabella gripped him by the shoulders. 

“Phineas, you’re spiralling!” _Boy, Ferb wasn’t kidding about the deep conversation._

”Yikes,” said Phineas. “I didn’t even realise. I dunno, it’s just that the other Phineas just isn’t in touch with his feelings at all. I’m pretty sure I was a very small side of him. But I just… he’s so stubborn and ignorant and… oblivious.”

”Well, you’re definitely right about not being in touch with your feelings,” Isabella said under her breath. _And right about being oblivious._

Phineas turned his head sharply towards her. ”What did you say?”

“Oh, nothing.”

Phineas smirked at her. “It’s okay, I know. That other me refuses to believe I have a crush on you.”

Isabella almost fainted at the sound of those words. “R-really?”

Phineas placed a hand on her shoulder. “Yeah.”

”Wow,” said Isabella. “I definitely like this Phineas a lot more.”

__________________

Isabella takes Phineas’s hand and leads him back downstairs after them both deciding to put the two of them back together. Ferb’s conversation with the positive Phineas however, wasn’t so successful.

“Phineas, please, you’ve got to-”

”Just think about how much I can get done without that other me! I could invent so much cooler stuff without anything at all holding me back!”

“What’s going on, Ferb?” asked Isabella.

”He’s, uh… getting a bit dangerous.” He pointed upwards.

Both Isabella and the negative Phineas looked up at the tall tower that positive Phineas had built.

”Phineas, what are you doing? It’s so high! And I know we’ve built a skyscraper to the moon but this by yourself is worse! It’s not even that secure!” Isabella yelled from the ground.

”We have to get him down from there,” said Ferb. “And quickly. Who knows how badly he could get hurt?”

”How? There’s nothing down here to entice him!”

Ferb paused. His eyes lit up as he darted into he kitchen, immediately making a cheese sandwich.

”Huh?” said Isabella.

”It’s his favourite,” said the negative Phineas.

Ferb held out the plate with the sandwich and whistled up to Phineas. 

”Ooh boy! I sure am hungry. Thanks Ferb!”

As he climbed down the metal structure, Ferb stood behind the molecular separator and flicked the reverse switch.

”Now, Ferb!”

There was a brilliant flash of blue light and before Ferb and Isabella stood one Phineas Flynn.

”Gosh, it’s so good to be back. Uh… Isabella? About that crush thing?” He chuckled nervously, and scratched his ear. “I… I didn’t really mean it. I think the me that was all touchy feely just got a bit too excited.”

”Oh…” said Isabella, disappointedly. “Well, I think we’ve all learnt that this machine is… kinda dangerous. I’m sorry for favouring one side over the other.”

”That’s okay Isabella.”

”I guess you’re not just two sides though. There’s heaps of sides to you. Maybe the molecular separator just happened to pick those two sides. Anyways, you’re all of your different sides, and you can’t really be split in two. Then you wouldn’t really be who you are, because all your parts make you who you are.”

”There are sides you’ve never seen before,” said Ferb, and Isabella gave him a bit of a scared look.

Ferb winked.


	2. Bifold Bully

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How about a bully with a big soft heart getting zapped with the molecular separator?

“Oh! I am sorry Buford. But you should try it, you might like it.”

“Nah, I won’t. Let’s head over to Dinnerbell’s and get them to do somethin’ to it.”

“Okay…” said Baljeet as they left his house.

They walked up the Flynn-Fletcher driveway and pushed open the side gate. 

“Look what Baljeet did to my candy bar! He got his peanut butter all over my chocolate! Look at this mess, look at it!” He shook the bar in Phineas’s face. 

“Buford, peanut butter and chocolate are really good together!” said Phineas. 

“I don’t wanna taste two things at once! That’s… unnatural!”

“Well, you’re in luck. We just finished our molecular separator, which breaks things down into their component parts!” Phineas listed off things they had separated while Buford thought about how much he didn’t want to try the two sweets together.

“Try it!” Phineas’s suggestion broke Buford out of his thoughts. 

Ferb took the peanut butter-covered chocolate bar and placed it on the stool in front of the machine. He readied the switch when suddenly a large, rare bird distracted the four of them by flying overhead.

“Wow, look at that!” said Phineas. 

Ferb’s hand accidentally knocked the switch forward, sending a bright blue beam towards Buford, but none of them noticed until they heard the splitting sound.

Baljeet let out the biggest gasp he had ever made in his life as he saw his best friend being split into two. 

“Phineas, Ferb! What is happening?”

The splitting stopped, and the boys all stood in stunned silence as they looked at the Buford’s.

One was wearing his typical black shirt, brown shorts and red boots, while the other was wearing a light pink shirt, light blue shorts and sported white sneakers. 

“Oh, boy,” said both Buford’s, looking at each other.

____________________

Baljeet used to be afraid of Buford of course, because he was a bully, but since he and the gang all made friends he learned about his softer and more lighthearted side. But now that they were separate, he wondered how Buford would treat him. 

“If you ever tell anyone that this softhearted weirdo is a part of me, I’ll pull ya underpants so far above ya head, ya won’t even be able to-“

“Uh… yes, Buford. I get the picture. But this Buford is part of who you are! Do not let that bring you down.”

Baljeet looked over at the lighthearted Buford, and saw him picking daisies out of the lawn and humming softly to himself.

 _I want to be with_ that _Buford all the time. He is just so calm and sweet._

Baljeet walked over to him and sat down beside him. “Hey, buddy.”

”Hey ‘Jeet. What’s up?”

Even though Baljeet was terrified of bad grammar, hearing Buford shorten his name wasn’t so bad. In fact, he liked it a lot.

”Oh, you know, not much.” Baljeet tried to stay as normal as possible. “This side of you is so…”

”Calm and collected? Yeah, I know. That tough guy over there’s kinda terrifyin’. But at least we can both exist peacefully without all the struggle and internal strife.”

_This Buford actually uses long words! How exciting!_ thought Baljeet. _Goodness, I really do like this side of him more._

”Ah… yes. Is it nice to be apart from somebody so negative?”

”Sure is, ‘Jeet. Y’know, I don’t even know why I bully people. This side of me don’t like it. I don’t like that one too much,” he pointed over to his other self.

”Mm. Popular opinion,” said Baljeet under his breath.

”But y’know, I gotta keep him. He’s a parta my personality. I don’t want to change anythin’.”

”Fair enough,” said Baljeet, patting Buford on the shoulder and then getting up to go to the other Buford. The one who always had his fists clenched.

”Hey, uh… wait.” Baljeet stopped in his tracks and turned to face Buford who was smiling shyly at him. “Why don’t we just sit here and make some daisy chains? And then… maybe cloudgaze?”

Baljeet tried to contain his excitement. “Oh, sure! That sounds like good fun.”

____________________

”Look how calm they both look,” said Phineas, as he and Ferb watched them creating floral necklaces from the lawn.

”What’s the bet they’ll fall in love?” asked Ferb.

Phineas snapped his head around to look at Ferb. “Whoa, what?”

”You really are oblivious.”

”Huh? About what?” Phineas immediately became defensive.

Ferb simply shrugged and looked over at the two boys, and smirked to himself. _Normally, Buford would_ never _treat Baljeet like this. I mean, not that any of us have seen. But maybe it’s his mean, masculine self that holds it back. Maybe he is too scared to admit to himself he’s got a thing for his little nerd._

_Maybe we can help him realise that._

”Uh, Ferb?”

Ferb looked over at Phineas’s worried face.

”Where did Buford go?”

Ferb’s eyes widened.

”We’ve gotta find him so we can put them back together! Baljeet, are you gonna come with us?”

The small Indian boy looked at the brothers, and then back at Buford. He simply smiled and shook his head.

”Okay, suit yourself. Let’s go, Ferb.”

The boys left the backyard, leaving Buford and Baljeet on their own.

”You know, you really should let this side show more. I know that you do not want to ruin your tough guy image by being able to speak fluent French and having quite the knack for making daisy chains, but sometimes being soft is good. It humanises you, and makes you seem more like a real, genuine person.”

”’Jeet, stop-”

”No, no, I am serious! It is much nicer to be around you when you are like this.”

”’Jeet, are you… in love with me?”

Baljeet couldn’t think of an answer quickly enough.

”Because if you are… then I think am too.”

Baljeet smiled at Buford. “Well… yes. A little bit. But we are still very young! I do not want to get into something this young in life.”

”That’s fine, ‘Jeet. I won’t pressure ya into anythin’,” said Buford softly. 

They smiled at each other, and were quite close to each other’s faces when the gate swung open again.

”We’re back!” Phineas announced. “Look who we found!”

Ferb had Buford by the ear, pulling him through the backyard. He let go, and Buford rubbed his ear from the pain. 

“I get it! Lesson learned.”

“Hey, Buford,” said Phineas. “Come and get yourself reattached!”

Buford took Baljeet’s hand, squeezed it, and went over to his other self.

”Ready, Ferb?”

Ferb gave the thumbs up and turned the reverse switch on the molecular separator. A bright blue light shot towards the multiplied boy, and then they were together again.

”Yay, he is back!” Baljeet exclaimed, and went over to hug him. Instead, he got a palm to the forehead preventing him from touching Buford.

”Not yet, pal.” And he winked at Baljeet.

**Author's Note:**

> Hiya! This is my first pnf fic so I hope you enjoyed it! I really liked the “Split Personality” episode from season two and got inspired to write this. Thanks for reading!


End file.
